I recommended to my sons to resume the exercise of the
shooting of arrows; for I had an extreme solicitude about their
preserving and increasing their bodily strength and agility. Nothing tends more to the extinction of personal courage in a human
being, than the consciousness of wanting that strength of limb, or that address which may be necessary to aid us in defending
ourselves, or in escaping from dangers. On this occasion, I added the exercises of running, jumping, getting up trees, both
by means of climbing by the trunk, or by a suspended rope, as
sailors are obliged to do to get to the mast-head. We began
at first by making knots in the rope, at a foot distance from
each other; then we reduced the number of knots, and before
we left off we contrived to succeed without any. I next taught
them an exercise of a different nature, which was to be effected
by means of two balls made of lead, fastened one to each end... #story #kidsstories AcreSoft Story Classic